Arrived to Czech

I had arrived with the girls to Czech last week. The travel is always tiring, but we know what to expect - the tiredness really is the hardest thing when coming here. The packing of our suitcases, though, is much worse. But now we are happily here; time-wise converted to local time and enjoying nice "cool" 70 - 80 degree F summer weather with zero humidity.  :)

This is us waiting at the Vienna airport for the bus to Czech. The girls are doing remarkably good after two plane changes and 1 - 2 hour night sleep (It's 3:30 am of Eastern time!).


This past week I had

• been spending my time with my kids, my Mom, my sister and my sister's three boys. 
• experienced quite a noise being around 6 kids nearly 24/7 
• had already hosted couple sleepovers!
• hosted a small birthday party for my 2 nephews with my Mom. 
• made a cake, had to improvise because the ingredients I use in the US are not available here.
• to take cold showers for 2 days!
• to have a water-heater repaired.
• to do without Internet connection
• sent a book contribution submission after deadline (!)

So little time

Past couple of weeks had been really hectic. Ever since I got back from TNNA, I've been going nonstop.  I have many things I am trying to finish before I go to the Czech Republic for the summer and the days do not seem to have enough hours in day.

1.  There are several submissions I want to send some proposals to but I am seriously running out of time. I have to prioritize and let some go.

2. I am finishing a class on-line. Tomorrow is the last class and over the weekend I am hoping to do the final, since I don't want to do it while traveling.

3. I need to pack; and I have not started yet at all!

4. I need to pick suitable yarns and stitch patterns for multiple design proposal to take with me to work on while in Czech.

5. I had been finishing  two projects for a holiday magazine. Luckily, they are ready to be sent off tomorrow. I was hoping to send it off today, but was unable to have it all done until evening.

Having my kids out of school for over a week now makes me to have a bit less time during the day. But they help me. My oldest daughter helped me rewind the new hanks of yarn I got at TNNA into balls today. By the time she was done, she was a pro. My six year old also wanted to try it, so she did some of the tiny yarn samples I had.

6. I have to finish proofreading of several patterns that had been tech edited.

Oh my, the list is growing. I better go to bed to get an early start tomorrow.  I have only three days.

TNNA 2010 - part 3

So here is more on TNNA goodies.

Gadgets

I had gotten a chance to stop by dellaQ booth and buy their awesome circular needle case. I don't know about you, but I have my Addi circs still in their original packaging stored in a gallon Ziploc. I am always searching for the correct size like a mad woman. So finally I decided enough is enough and I bought this case. I had bought a similar case for my crochet hooks (crochet roll) last year and absolutely love it! I never have to search for anything and I can always grab it and go.  It goes well with my favorite large knitting bag from the same company. That bag is very cool.

Then I stopped by Lantern Moon. Faina and I had a very nice talk with the owner. She was offering some new needles and had great plans for their future products. I can't wait. I had shared with her that the small silk taffeta knitting bags she sells are absolute hit with my girls. The colors the bags come in are just sensational. I ordered those bags for my kids last year, and they just loved it. The girls feel inspired to knit when they have these beautiful bags to store their knitting in; they are just like Mommy.  Sometimes they even use these bags as purses when we go out!

This year the girls got clam shell cases. They come in sets of three. You can use them for your little notions we all carry around.

More on Yarn

I took a class at TNNA on dyeing yarn. I have long admired hand-dyed yarn and wanted to learn how to do it myself. I am not a huge fan of the variegated yarn, but I love the monochromatic yarns. The class I took was good -- hands on. Though my results were not necessarily what I had imagined. I wanted to dye my yarn in a "happy" orange, but it turned out to be more golden, fall looking orange. It still looks OK, but it was not what I was going for. I guess I cannot expect to be an expert at my first try! Here is the result.

It has a golden orange and a bit of apple candy color in it. Eventually, I'd like to make a shawl out of it.

The second dyeing attempt was a bit worse.  My daughter called it a tie-dye (!), even though it was just painted flat on the knitted fabric. Hmm. Maybe I stick with designing. But the yarn dyeing in a hanks I might try again. This flat knitted fabric is machine knitted with two yarns held together, so if one wants to make socks out of yarn dyed this way, you will end up with matching socks. And that's nice.

TNNA 2010 - Part 2

TNNA is an international trade organization representing retailers, manufacturers, distributors, designers, manufacturers' representatives, publishers,... and twice a year they have a trade show where buyers and sellers are brought together. Sellers are representing the best in the business. Buyers are busy snapping up the latest and most exciting new products.

Since nobody is allowed to buy anything on the market floor, people might get samples of various products to help them decide if they want to make order or not. For us, designers, the best samples we can get is yarn. These are all my goodies packed in Lantern Moon's silk bag. 

I have seen many new yarns offered by veterans like Cascade, Berroco, Blue Sky Alpacas, Bijou Basin Ranch, Plymouth, and many others, but also discovered several new yarn companies that had amazing yarn. Those new companies might not be necessarily new in business, but they were either exhibiting for the first time or they are new to me.

One of my favorite new yarns I discovered was yarn of Abuelita Yarns.  Abuelita yarns is a well-established Uruguayan company (I was told they've been in business over 35 years) and they produce very fine, heavenly soft hand dyed yarns. Their specialty is merino, but they offer some merino and silk blends, and organic cotton.

In the picture you can see from left to right:: Abuelita Three Ply (New) - 100% merino, 420 yd in 3.5oz/100g per skein, and the other two are Abuelita Thick and Thin - 100% merino, 136 yd in 3.5oz/100g skein. I can't wait to rewind them into balls and swatch them. Both these yarns are so very soft. Ahhh.  You can see their whole line of yarns here.


Another yarn that yarn I got magically drawn to whole weekend was yarn offered by Anzula luxury fibers. They offer hand dyed luxury yarn and incredible choice of spinning fiber. They carry wide variety of yarn weight from lace weight to worsted in semi-solids (my favorite) and variegated colorways. For those who enjoy variegated yarn, you can request any combination of their 40+ colors they offer. All the colors are very unique and really beautiful.

Here you can see Oasis (70% silk, 30% camel, 375 yd, 6sts/inch on US #5), Cricket (80% superwash merino, 10% cashmere, 10% nylon; 250yd, 5sts/inch on US#5 - here you can see only a half skein), Mermaid (60% sea cell, 40% silk, lace weightt +/-700yd), For Better or Worsted (80% superwash merino, 10% cashemere, 10% nylon, +/-200yd, 4 sts/inch) - this yarn is incredibly soft and pleasure to knit with.

Another yarn I really liked was yarn by Pear Tree Yarn. It is an Australian based company that offers natural Australian luxury yarn. I have seen them at the previous shows and I always love coming to see them at their booth. Their yarns have beautiful natural colors that I am drawn to.

Last, but not least Fibre-Isle Fine Yarns. It is a company that is specializing in bison and bison-blend yarns. The owner, Sylvie Toupin, is a spinner and incredible lace designer.

Here you can see from in front Kami Bison DK (60% bamboo, 30% merino, 10% bison, US #6-7 needles) and in the back Kami Bison (60% bamboo, 30% merino, 10% bison, US #1-2 needles).

The scale you see in these pictures belonged to my beloved Grandmother. She was a great baker and used it all the time. The scale is very special to me because it reminds me of her everyday. I lived with her for most of my childhood. She passed away 9 months ago and I miss her terribly.

On a lighter note, next time let's talk some more yarn, new designs and gadgets.

TNNA 2010 - part 1

This TNNA was awesome! I hung out with old friends and made new ones. I had seen some yummy new yarn from veteran yarn companies, but also some wonderful new yarn companies.  I had seen new gadgets for the season. I had conducted some good networking and established new work relationships. Overall, it was a great, fun and productive weekend.

So much happened that I will need more than one post to report it all. Let me start with all the wonderful designers I met.  They always make the visit of TNNA market the most fun. So here we go.

I had met with Marlaina "Marly" Bird (Yarn Thing and Blog Radio) who I am always looking forward to seeing. She seems always happy and is extremely funny! She always hangs out with Kristin Omdahl who I met last TNNA. She is very talented and always stylishly dressed in her beautiful crochet creations. Kristin has a new book coming out Crochet so Fine that was revealed at the show.

My friend Faina Goberstein arrived on Sunday, so I did only have a day and half to spend with her. It's always a pleasure to be around her; we have always tons things to talk about. If you have not heard yet, Faina is running a very popular site Designer's Studio where you can read interviews of all the finest knit and crochet designers. Faina has  a great oversight of what's going on in the designing world and knows everyone!

I briefly talked with Stefanie Japel who arrived with her baby daughter Olive and her hubby. It was nice to see Mary Beth Temple.

I also met new designers whose work I had been admiring for long time. I met Ellen Gormley at Raverly's Ice Cream party that was held after the fashion show on Friday.

Saturday I met Linda Permann, who I also met for coffee and coke break on Monday. We talked all stuff designing and I clicked with her right away.

At the Stitch Cooperative party on Saturday I met Robyn Chachula - a crochet design genius. I had dinner with Dora Oherstein - a stylish crochet designer who runs an on-line crochet magazine Crochet Insider.

At the Designer's dinner at Buca di Peppo I met among others Amy Polcyn - we've known each other through e-mails a good while since we work on projects for Mission Falls together, but we never met before in person. I sat across a table not even knowing that it was her until we introduced ourselves. She looked much younger in person than I saw her on the Internet. Good for her.

By mere accident, Faina and I had bumped into Nancy Marchant, brioche stitch mastermind, in Einstein Bagels and ended up having a nice breakfast together. She has also a new coming out, Knitting Brioche - it's really cool.

The list can go on and on. I met Kate Oates, Allegra Wermuth, Cecily Glowik MacDonald, Veronik Avery, Teva Durham, Anne Kuo Lukito, Ysolda Teague, and many, many others.

Next time, let's talk yarn.

Help for Haiti

I added several of my patterns to Help-for-Haiti cause. 50% of sales from my select patterns will go to American Red Cross. You can find all the patterns here. The ones in this side bar are included in this special sale as well.

Video Decoding

I have spent about 60% of my weekend (!?!) trying to learn how to convert video clips taken by my husband's camera into a format that my Windows Movie Maker would be able to download. It's a great software installed on my computer that I can use for editing clips made by my Sony camera; but it does not help if the format .mov cannot be downloaded to it from my husband's camera.

The problem I am having is that if I take video clips of close-up shots with my Sony camera, the images are rather out of focus. I had been trying to adjust the focus modes on it, but it does not seem to help. The best I am able to get is with automatic focus, but as I move my fingers and needles while knitting, the picture is coming in and out of focus; and that's very annoying.

So I tried to use my husband's camera for the close ups; and the problem was solved - I was getting sharp images. Though, now I am unable to upload these files to my "movie maker" software to edit it!! It's very frustrating.

I had been trying to download some other editing softwares from Internet to try if the .mov format would work with any of them. If you have some good suggestion, let me know. I hope that the output of the edited version will work with the site I am intending to use for the on-line classrooms. :)

On-line Knitting & Crochet Classes

Hi everyone!

It's been a while since my last post. I've been quite busy, traveling to Europe during the summer (it was a bitter sweet visit, though) and had been working quite a bit after I got back - six new designs coming up in spring. A bit more on that in upcoming posts.

Right now I am working on setting up my own knitting and crochet workshop studio where I am going to offer knitting and crochet on-line classes. I am very excited about the prospect when I think of all the possibilities of an on-line course can offer to knitters and crocheters out here cyberspace.

Last week I started taking an on-line class (very much the same format I am going to be offering) for teachers to learn how efficiently run this kind of venture. Stefanie Japel is the teacher of that class; and she is terrific. Many of you have probably heard of her; she has published a couple of knitting books (looove them!) and she also has quite a successful on-line presence. I am also enjoying being in the classroom with other designers and teachers. We don't get much of face-to-face interaction otherwise, so this is a wonderful opportunity for us to get together.

This past few days I have been also building the on-line classroom web site. The classroom will be fully interactive with instructional videos, PDF handouts, forums and live chats, so it will have a feel of real life classroom. It will have so many advantages over a real-life classes:

• students will have access to all the materials 24-hours a day for the duration of the class (about 3 - 4 weeks)
• students can review materials over and over, until it's clear to them
  
• students can post in forums about their progress; ask questions; interact with each other
  
• students can participate in live chats with me and other students
  
• students can learn in the comfort of their home, or during a lunch break
• students can save time and money by not having to travel to a location
• - great for knitters/crocheter who don't have access to LYS
  
• - great for moms who can study the evenings or during children's nap times
• students can produce a finished project by the end of the class!
  

Today I have been trying to edit my recorded test video with Windows Movie Maker that is installed on my computer. It is quite easy to use and creates professionally looking footage. I had "play" with the output format, which was not supported by my website.

I am interested what you think about this type of classes and what kind of classes you would like to take on-line. Would you be interested in beginners classes, more advanced classes, technique or project classes? I have a few class ideas, but I am still interested in what you think and what you'd like to learn. Let me know.

Spring Shell - Interweave Crochet, Spring 2009

I wanted to share with you a new design of mine that was just published in Interweave Crochet, Spring 2009 issue. I was pretty happy with the way it turned out. I really liked the yarn that I used in this sample, the Gedifra Florida. It made for a great stitch definition; it was soft but did not have too much of a drape - just right for this garment. In fact I liked it so much I got some of this yarn for myself at Royal Yarns here at a nice discount - yellow color for me and red for my oldest daughter. If I only had time to work something out of it NOW.

Anyways, back tot the Spring Shell - you can see more information about the pattern on Interweave Crochet site here. The magazine is on newsstands now.

If you are on Ravelry and want to join a CAL, there is a Crochet-Along for the Spring Shell starting here.

It was also brought to my attention on this CAL that the pattern, unfortunately, has an error in Rnd 2 of the Main body in the magazine. Please see the errata below for working the pattern correctly.

Spring Shell (Interweave Crochet, Spring 2009) - errata

Here it is what it should read starting on p. 56:

Rnd 1: (RS) Ch 3 (counts as dc here and throughout), sk first sc, work form * to * of Row 1 of Main body patt (see Stitch Guide) 5 (6, 7, 8, 9, 10) times, work Row 1 of Panel patt (see Stitch Guide), rep from * to * 13 (15, 17, 19, 22, 23) times, dc in next sc, pm for right side “seam” , dc in next sc, rep from * to * of Row 1 of Main body patt 23 (26, 29, 32, 35, 38) times, dc in last sc, pm for beg of rnd (left “seam” - see Notes), sl st in beg ch 3 to join, turn.
Rnd 2: Ch 3, sk first dc, dc in each dc to first ch-1 sp, work Row 2 of Panel patt, dc to end, sl m (beg of rnd), sl st in beg ch 3 to join, turn.
Rnd 3: Ch 3, sk first dc, work form * to * of Row 1 of Main body patt 5 (6, 7, 8, 9, 10) times, work Row 2 of Panel patt, rep from * to * 13 (15, 17, 19, 22, 23) times, dc in last dc before m (right “seam”), sl m, dc in next dc, rep from * to * 23 (26, 29, 32, 35, 38) times, dc in last st, sl m (beg of rnd & left “seam”), sl st in first st to join, turn.

Then continue as written in the magazine.

There were also some questions that came up on the Ravelry CAL, so I address them here as well.
(1) The top is worked in rounds that are connected at left side seam by sl st at the end of each round. Then you turn your work to WS and work back around to left seam again, join with sl st and then turn to RS. This way you go back and forth in rounds joining at the left seam.
(2) The top has a clear visual “division” between front and back pieces with visual seams being places between 2 dc at either side (see the instructions above).

I hope it’s more clear now and I am not confusing you further. If more questions arise, please let me know. :)

New pattern posted ...

I just wanted to let you know that I have put the last American Girl pattern on sale in my store. If you want to download it immediately, you can buy it below in this post.

Cotton Candy

$4.00

This top fits to an American Girl doll size and any comparable 18” doll.

The top has TOP-DOWN seamless construction - no sewing required except for weaving loose ends. The hat is also knitted in a round, no seams and sewing required. This is a quick 3 - 4 hour project; great for last minute gifts.

SIZES: One size – to fit 18” doll

MATERIALS:
• 1 3.75oz./100g ball (each approx. 178yd / 163m) of TLC
Cotton Plus (51% Cotton, 49% Acrylic) in color #3706 light
rose; OR 135yd/ 148m of any comparable medium weight
(worsted) yarn. (Note: when choosing the yarn, choose rather
some stretchier yarn for this project since it needs to be put
on overhead and needs to stretch a bit to fit.)
• One set of 5 dpn US size #6 (4mm) needles OR SIZE TO
OBTAIN CORRECT GAUGE
• 4 stitch markers (m)
• Stitch holders (or scrap yarn)
• Tapestry needle

GAUGE:
• 19 sts and 26 rows = 4” square over St st using US size #6
(4mm) needles
• 21 sts and 48 rows = 4” square over Bubble patt using US size #6 (4mm) needles